Multifocal oral melanoacanthoma and melanotic macula in a patient after dental implant surgery.

BACKGROUND

Oral melanoacanthoma (OMA) is an uncommon, reactive, pigmented mucocutaneous lesion. It is a rapidly growing, well-circumscribed, small, brown-to-black, solitary or multifocal macule that is characterized histopathologically by proliferation of keratinocytes and pigment-laden dendritic melanocytes.

CASE DESCRIPTION

At the end of a one-month healing period after dental implant surgery, a 63-year-old white woman had pigmented lesions at different oral mucosal sites (hard palate, buccal mucosa and left maxillary tuberosity) that showed macrophages exhibiting iron and melanin in multiple areas of the lamina propria. The authors obtained biopsy specimens from all the lesions for histologic and immunohistochemical analyses and light-microscopy study.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Surgery could have been causal or incidental to the appearance of these lesions. Clinicians should be aware of this possible event and make a correct and pathologically confirmed differential diagnosis.